Int’l Bytes: SSE Telcoms, Alcatel, Orange Business, IX Reach

SSE Enterprise Telcoms has a couple new customers for its London metro fiber. Three UK and O2 have signed on to hook up both company's cell sites via SSE's network down in the London sewers, I mean the Thames Water waste water network. The two wireless carriers are, unsurprisingly, working to prepare for 5G deployments by improving fronthaul and backhual access across the city.

Alcatel Submarine Networks is working on a new cable system to one of the more remote destinations off of the western African coast. Working with Equatorial Guinea's GITGE, the Nokia division is building the Ultramar GE cable system between Sao Tomé et Principe with the island of Annobón. With a population of just over five thousand, the new cable will probably not be too stressed even if they all start watching Netflix at once, haha.

Orange Business has picked up a new contract in the airline sector. Air France will be leveraging a collaborative effort between Orange Business and Global Eagle to power in-flight connectivity on its Airbus A320 aircraft. Initially that covers some 113 planes running on short and medium-haul flights in the EMEA region. Global Eagle's hardware and Orange Business's ground and satellite connectivity will enable 500Mbps per aircraft.

And IX Reach has a new data center partner. The interconnection and connectivity provider is now offering services within TeleData's Manchester , UK facility. TeleData operates a 6,500 square meter data center just north of Manchester's airport, from which tenants will have direct access to the various cloud providers among other destinations.